Ready to start learning Chinese?

It's easier than you might think.

Asian Avenuemagazine, August 2007

By David Kopel

It's true that mastering Chinese takes a long time
for an average American. The U.S. State Department figures that to train
an American diplomatic to strong proficiency in Chinese takes about three
times as long as training her to an equivalent level in French, Spanish,
or Italian. But at the beginning level, some aspects of Chinese are easy.

First of all, there's almost no grammar to learn. No
singular or plural, no genders, no verb tenses. So the word for "I" (wo),
also means "me" "my" and "mine." The particular meaning depends on the
context of the rest of the sentence.

Likewise, the verbs never change, regardless of the
subject, object, or time. So the verb "to be" (shi) is exactly the same,
whether you're saying "I am", "they were", or "we will be." Think of all
the time you spent in Spanish class learning how to conjugate verbs. With
Chinese, as soon as you know the verb, you can conjugate it perfectly.

In the long run, the absence of conjugations can make
things more difficult. Without verb tenses, it's tough to say, "If we
would have known sooner what we were going to have learned, then we might
have decided that we should have done things differently."

But for the simple thoughts of a beginner, it's easy
to just use a time word to convey your meaning: "Yesterday I visit the
park." "Tomorrow morning I shop at the mall."

With any language, you need to practice speaking a
lot in order to feel confident enough for simple conversations in a
foreign country. These best solution for Chinese, as for almost any
language, is the Pimsleur tapes/CDs. The Pimsleur program consists of
half-hour daily lessons in which you start participating in conversations
instantly, learning to say basic sentences (not just isolated words). The
lessons are superbly structured to balance the introduction of new
material with frequent review of older material, so that everything is
deeply engrained in your brain.

Many users repeat Pimsleur lesson once or twice, so
that they can master the material before moving forward.

The Pimsleur programs are not inexpensive, but they
are an excellent value for the money. The company sells an introductory
pack of eight Chinese lessons for a low price, so you can see if you like
it.

I've been saying "Chinese," but while there is one,
common written Chinese language, there are about a dozen spoken Chinese
languages--as distinct from one another as English is from Dutch. Mandarin
is almost certainly the first Chinese language you should learn (unless
you're headed to Hong Kong or Shanghai).

Mandarin is the official language of Taiwan, is by
far the most common language in China, and is also a lingua francain much of southeast Asia. The Pimsleur programs in Mandarin teach you the
Beijing accent (lots of hard "r" sounds). The accent will not interfere
with your ability to communicate basic ideas in Taiwan, and more than a
businessman's London accent would interfere with his communication in
Chicago.

Pimsleur will not make you fluent, but it will take
care of most of your needs as a visitor, and will also provide a great
foundation if you decide to study further. One of my friends taught
himself fluent Portuguese (good enough to make speeches at academic
conferences in Brazil). The Pimsleur tapes were his starting point.

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